On the Blog

Our executive editor's weekly missive, including a powerful conversation on suicide and the choice to stay, a healing poem on solidarity and depression, a call to face our ghosts and show courage in the wake of Ferguson, and a moment of unexpected joy.

A mix of unexpected joy from a prairie trombone and a Finnish folk band playing AC/DC paired with a sage Nobel Prize-winning Bengali, a nonagenarian from Boston, and columnists Parker and Courtney. Quite swath of things to think about and carry into the week.

As part of a conversation with the Church of Ireland about the question of human sexuality, our special contributor confesses his "gay agenda": to love the gospels; to love repentance; to love words and courage and my partner; and to show love to each other on our great endeavor.

In his interview with Krista Tippett, the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho surprised us by recalling Krista's 2010 TED talk at the United Nations. It is in wrestling with ourselves and our contradictions, he says, that we uncover the breeding grounds of compassion.

A mix of fresh commentary on the burden and joy of being human, a meditation on the suffering of Job, a thought piece on the value of relatability, and an homage to Krista and the vast, unending terrain of mystery.

Rather than being defined by what she's not, Courtney Martin offers a more complex perspective from a new generation of seekers. An introduction to our new weekly columnist who will offer fresh ways of looking at "the burden and joy of trying to understand how to be a good human."

Is the Slenderman phenomenon symptomatic of secular soul-searching in a culture robbed of religion, or a byproduct of bad religion? Or perhaps, as the author suggests, the Internet creation is one in a long line of legends filling our craving for a life imbued with mystery.